Southside Church

Girls in the back of the truck

Well, its the end of day eight, and i can no longer avoid blogging, as everyone has had a turn but me.  I contemplated
“accidentally” tossing the lap top over the balcony, but then I wouldn’t get the chance to tell everyone back at home
how much I miss them – LOTS. We had another awesome day today, starting off with the breakfast of champions – spaghetti.
The only meal we haven’t had spaghetti for thus far has been dinner, weird.  A carb laden breakfast actually turned
out to be a good thing, as it was back to work today at the school.  The foundation wall is now complete and we are
back filling around the interior of the foundation in preparation for the  concrete slab, and then walls can start going
up, very exciting.  It has been an unexpected blessing forming relationships with the construction crew that we are
helping to build the school.  They are helping us to learn creole, and we are getting to know them on a more personal
level.  A highlight for me was actually getting to see the construction workers in church on Sunday, and being able to
watch them sing and worship, their singing is amazing.  After work we went to several of the students homes, to talk to
their parents to see if we could get some feedback on how much of an impact the school is having on the students family
lives.  All the info we gathered was positive, and it was enlightening to see how these families actually live.  Every
home we visited had over 6 family members, living in a house that was maybe 8′ x 12′.  After visiting with all the
families we went to Pastor Vogly’s house for dinner, where Mrs. Vogly prepared us another wonderful meal of chicken,
rice and beans, potato salad,  coleslaw, banana chips, fried potato chips, these yummy hot dog things wrapped in
banana slices, and everyone’s favorite – a fruit custard thing that tastes awesome, I need to get the recipe, and then
get it translated in to English.  Well, with any luck this will be the last you hear from me until I get to see you all
back in Canada.  God bless everyone, see you soon.

-Damon

"Real Haitian Food"

Andrew putting his back into it...

The dirt's flying!

Ready for the floor..our job is done!

The girls with the children at Church

Laura on the way to church

Andrew did not set up this sound system

Day 7 – Church Day. This morning, we had a thick chicken-like soup to start our day. Apparently the meat was goat, but I imagined it was chicken to make the experience better! Around 8:30 we headed to Pastor Vogly’s church. The service started with some repetition of verses and then worship. Our team was seated at the front of the church beside some of the children. The worship was in creole but some of the girls lent us their hymnals and we were able to follow along. It was incredible how these kids just sang their hearts out!
Pastor Mike preached a sermon and Jojo translated the message into creole for the church. He mentioned that despite our race, language and cultural differences, we all have the same Father. We were able to see the unity between our church in Chilliwack and the church in Haiti. In the evening, we headed back to church for another service. This one was more worship orientated. A few of the pastors led songs,the children sang a song, and then a group of teenagers sang as well. Worship ended with us coming up to the front and singing two songs for the church. The kids we sat with were hilarious and there was an ongoing poking contest. We were crammed onto benches that strangely kept getting closer and closer together. It was to the point where our knees were almost hitting the people in front of us but it was all in good fun! Steve preached and Jojo was once again the translator.

After church, we were invited into Vogly’s house for an amazing dinner made by Vogely’s wife and friends. There were chicken wings, coleslaw, incredible rice and potato salad. It was by far the best meal we have had in Haiti. The dinner was topped off by a fruity custard dessert which was fantastic. Steve can testify to that fact as he licked both the serving spoon and bowl of the dish! Oh Steve…Well that’s it for today! Tomorrow, we are headed back to the work site to do some construction and finalize sponsorship information. Hopefully I don’t hit anyone with rocks this time!!

-By Laura

Photo on the top of Pastor Vogly's house

Vogly praying for the team and the meal we were about to eat

Pastor Mike in his Sunday best!

Hey everyone! Today was Day 5 of our trip, I can’t believe how quickly the time is flying by. Last night most of us shared our testimonies with each other. It was such a great bonding experience. Everyone’s stories truly inspired me. It is amazing to hear how God has worked in everyone’s lives and brought us all together in Haiti. I have only really gotten to know everyone over the last few days and I have so much love for all of them already. This morning was pretty exciting for all of us because the boys finally got their toilet unplugged (woot woot). The poor maid. After breakfast we headed over to the school. It was so quiet without all of the kids there. We helped with construction again, which included more rock throwing. Jaclyn wised up since yesterday and arranged it so that I was the lucky one whom Laura was throwing the rocks to. Laura would make a great rugby player, she always has an intense backspin on those rocks that makes catching the “filet roche” or sharp rocks an adventure. Every time we help with construction it never ceases to amaze me the amazing structures the Haitians can build using such simple materials. After helping with construction for a while we got a bit distracted by the coconut trees. Steve started throwing large rocks at it to knock the coconuts out of the tree. Jojo found this absolutely hysterical even though Steve was eventually successful. One of the kids ran off to find a machete and they opened up the coconuts for us. It was the first time I have ever had coconut juice and it was absolutely delicious! The meat was really good as well. Much better than the limes we tried later, my lips are still burning. Before we left the school we went down the hill to check out where the women went to get the water used in making concrete. I had no idea how they manage to do it. I had enough trouble making it up and down without balancing a bucket of water on my head.

Pastor Mango trying out a new name: Pastor Coconut?

Girls looking good for the camera

Our "make do" pool as ours was broken...

Mike's "who drank my toro" face

"Paying" our translator Jojo with coconut! (just kidding he isn't getting paid)

Vince test driving some of the toys...

Laura displaying the decorative placemats

In the afternoon we went to a different hotel to have lunch and play in their pool since ours still hasn’t been filled. It was so nice to have a relaxing day. The pool was so refreshing! We played a game of tag-football in the water. Pastor Mike, Jaclyn, Damon and I lost pretty badly to Steve, Andrew, Laura and Vince (aka “Ching-Chang-Chong” to all the Haitians).

When we got back to the hotel the Carnival was just starting. We watched a bit of it from the balcony. It was mostly younger Haitian guys in a small parade. Some of them were dressed up and lots of them were playing instruments and singing. Apparently it is a much bigger deal in Jacmel. There was a lot of bugs out tonight so we ate dinner as quick as possible. I should probably finish up though, everyone is waiting for me to finish so we can hear Steve’s testimony.

Thank you for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers.

-Danielle

Hey Hey! Day four and another great day on our trip We had a simple breakfast today, bread, bananas, eggs
and Haitian coffee. yum! nothing weird. My stomach and I were not on good terms today, still feeling a bit iffy but I made it through the after noon feeling good. When we got to the school we picked up as usual, boys went and did construction and us girls continued on with getting the sponsorship information, which we finished up the last 30 or so kids in good time, which was really good, because we found out there is no school tomorrow, and they wouldn’t have school again till Thursday, because of a Karnaval. So this was our last day to gather the info we needed, plus our only opportunity to hand out the shoe box bags! Which was a success! All the kids seemed really happy but still a bit shy. Back at the motel our lunch as per usual consisted of bread, PB and bananas, plus cookies and chips…sooo nutritious! Mike stuck to his trail mix.

Mike and Karli Andres's Sponsor child Milouse!

Our excited students opening their backpacks!

Lunch time at the school!

A far cry from a convection oven!

The team sorting all the backpacks!

A letter and shoebox from Ally Bettancourt direct from Canada!

Jojo modeling the nifty Southside Bag

Steve and Vince doing some "heavy lifting" and making it look goood!

Andrew with a few of the kids

And back we go to the school, after a entertaining game of pool with a soap opera on the side.We had to make sure there was enough packs for each child to get one in the afternoon classes so we started counting the kids in class… took about three tries till we calculated it right! We definitely had enough bags thanks everyone at Southside who helped us out!! This group of kids are the crazy bunch who just love us girls. If only we had more hands! We had to get them settled in there classes again to avoid the chaos the could have happened, thankfully we have JoJo to be our translator. The kids were super grateful for  the backpacks and it was definitely rewarding to see how happy they were !! They stayed in class and were still in class when we left again, seems they had been getting out about an hour or 2 early because of us being there the past two days! And us girls seem to have missed out on doing construction today…too bad…we were really looking forward to throwing rocks…again.. or in my case having crazy Laura throwing rocks at me.. Dinner was the
same plus some pasta! Tasty, although I didn’t feel like eating, and Steve ate my leftovers along with Laura’s and Danielle’s, and his own plate which he got Laura to serve to him.. funny how that works.. My ill feelings have passed after a nice cold shower, since that’s the only temperature water comes in, and were just headed to the boys room for sharing time. We have been sharing our testimonies and choosing who has to share by spinning a bottle on the floor. Yes we are playing “Spin the bottle” on a missions trip, but not what you think!! All in all a pretty good day.

By Jaclyn

Hey everybody, another great day today – got up and had a mystery meat and tomato/onion sandwich for breakfast – pretty sure it was jambon (pork).  It was good! We’ve been eating a lot of Haitian bread, spicy peanut butter, bananas, rice, beans, chicken and a goat.  Mix that with a whole lot of Gatorade and some pop and… well… yours truly isn’t feeling so hot today.  Skipped dinner – just couldn’t do it.  No problem – my plan tomorrow is trail mix, meat, maybe a bit of rice. I should be back to normal.

Team Chain Gang

Jaclyn Hammin it up with one of our students..

Charlies Angels? or Haitian Facebook Pose?

Steve climbing to get mangos for Mike...

I keep forgetting that I’m the old guy on this trip and I can’t punish my body like I used to.  It’s just that I LOOK so young! I fool even myself sometimes.   We moved a lot of large rocks around the job site today. We stand in a big
line and pass each rock to the next person until the rock reaches its destination.  It seems to be a tradition now that we try and move them as fast as we can until someone drops one, then we all have a big laugh and start over.  These Haitian guys love that game – they are really fun to work with.   I have to admit that it’s a good way to keep such heavy work fun.  We learned that “big rock”is “gro roche”, small rock is “ti roche” and heavy rock is “jam roche”. The large rocks are for the “footings”.  The block walls of the classrooms will be constructed on top of the footings.  They are dug about four feet into the ground.  I think we’ll be done the footings by tomorrow, then we’ll be framing around the footing posts so that we can poor concrete (via 5 gal buckets) into the forms. The next job will be moving some of the dirt that has been piled up from digging the footings.  Then the dirt will need to be flattened and tamped down in preparation for rebar and concrete for the classroom floors. Lots of work to do!

The girls got a lot of sponsorship work done today.  Laura’s french has been very helpful in communicating with the students! I think they have completed photos and information gathering for 60 students in the first two days! More to do tomorrow.
The students start breaking for their lunch at about 10:30am.  It’s a break in the middle of their school day – that’s probably a good idea, when they have food in their stomachs they are probably a lot more focused on the teacher’s instruction!  During their lunch time a lot of the students came and talked to me and to the team.  Our family sponsors a little girl in grade 2, her name is Marie-Denise.  Her and her buddies came over and we were able to talk for a bit.  I’m looking forward to having JoJo (our awesome translator) to help me have a really good conversation with her later in the trip. She is Pastor Vogly’s niece, but she lives with the Pastor and his family since Denise’s family situation was too bad.  In addition to that, her mom is very sick – they live quite a long way from here – in the south mountains from Mirebalais.

I spoke a bit with Karli Andres sponsor student.  At one point a boy was teasing her so I grabbed him from behind and yelled to her so she ran over and beat him up a bit, all in good fun of course!  I was glad that I could help.  The last thing I did before the work day was over, was I spent some time with some of the students.  I asked them if they would like me to draw in their school notebooks and they said Yes!  So I started drawing people, cars, trucks, air balloons, motorcycles – all sorts of stuff.  They loved it and they all wanted me to draw motorcycles in their books – I was mobbed!  It was a lot of fun.  It’s always entertaining to speak in creole and see their reactions.  Sometimes they speak to me in creole and I have no clue what they are saying, even when they repeat it two or three times – weird huh? (subtle joke). The girls played several games with the students after classes were dismissed.  Danielle, Jaclyn and Laura had little girls hanging from their arms at all times.  Lots of smiles and laughs. After the work day was over we decided to go for a walk in the
Market, since market days are Wednesday and Saturday.  Then we ran into Karli’s student in her plain clothes (no uniform) as she was pushing a wheel barrow by the market.  We stopped and talked for a second, she is a really neat girl.  A lot of the students we will see in Church during the morning and evening services and that’s always fun.

Tomorrow will be another day of school construction and student sponsorship work.  On Friday we will allow the students to finish school a little early, then we will hand out all the “shoe boxes” from Southside (all the contents are in Southside Backpacks). I can’t wait to see how excited they are going to be – it’s going to be awesome.

Loralie, thanks so much for your little Valentines note – I love you like crazy and am so blessed to have you as my best friend for life.  Hey Jelaine, Jory and Brielle – I love and miss you guys too.  You would love it here.  This is a great place to serve if you love kids, like I know all of you do. TTFN, ta ta for now!  Ne wa pita! (see you later!).

-Pastor Mango (which are out of season right now – doh!)

Day two in Haiti !! So far the trip is amazing, We had spaghetti today for breakfast, one of my favorite food so no big deal haha. We went to the school site about 9am, and got to see how the school was being built in full action. Also we got to see how the school is set up for the children so they can still continue getting an education while the main campus is being built. They sit  in a few tents built with tables under the tents, in about 4 or 5 separate rooms. It was really super effective the way that the people were working on the school itself: They use pretty basic materials, the cement, and large rocks, to place together as you would puzzle pieces, and the frame that was made. They have multiple people in different “stations,” and everyone helps out everyone !! As for the children they were at first, very timid, shy, and almost seemed scared.

A "Load" of school children

Group with the school children

Our labor of love...AKA "The arm terminator" AKA "The future School"

The second time, we went back to the site after lunch, there was an afternoon class, and the kids began to totally open up and after a little while, and they were very comfortable with us, they would get close, and grab your hand, or arm, or leg, and just hang on, smiling, laughing, running around, just having a good time. It is very touching to see the large sense of community, and how after a little ice breaking, even though there is a language barrier, we all get a long soooo well.  We definitely got a lot done today, the ladies interviewed about 20 kids, I am not sure the exact number, and the guys helped a lot with the building of the walls of the school, and learning the system, and getting to know the other workers. So all in all it was a fantastic full, day of learning, and getting along, and sharing, and helps to provide, a good vision for the future.

Andrew

Today I left for Haiti directly after being prayed for at the start of second service. We took three flights: The first to LA from Vancouver, then across to Miami, and finally to Haiti from there. To say the least, it was a long “day” for me, as I was barely able to sleep during most of the flights. We arrived in Port Au Prince, Haiti at 9:30 Am there, and then drove for several hours out of the city and through the mountains, and eventually to Mirebalais, in a small Toyota Hilux Truck. To Say the drive was an eye opener would be an understatement, as you didn’t have to go far to see the kind of poverty the Haitians lived in. We witnessed it first hand, as we saw many people living in loosely constructed buildings, selling stuff on the street, and a ton more other stuff. Despite the poverty level, it really is amazing how happy and upbeat the Haitians seem as they go around doing their thing.

After dropping most of our school supplies off at the cookhouse behind the school and getting a quick look at what and where we would be doing a lot of our work, we checked into our hotel which, in Haiti at least, is a first class resort. It has air conditioning and warm showers and meals. It is about a 5 minute drive from the school, and tomorrow we will be starting our construction work there, but first we all need some sleep. I have yet to get any sleep other than about a three hour nap from 2:00pm – 5:00pm, although I felt like I slept A LOT longer than that when I eventually woke up. We will have dinner (currently waiting for dinner as I type this), probably lay low for a couple more hours, and then try to get a good sleep so we can be up early tomorrow ready to work.